“King Mo” also had to change his view on Twitter a little. While
recovering from surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, Lawal
was active on the social network. However, his outspoken style led
to some disagreements.

“I was blocking more people than I was Tweeting,” Lawal said. “I
had to deal with some haters. A lot of people are ignorant because
I guess they wanted me to sugarcoat s--t. I don’t sugarcoat a damn
thing. If there’s something on my mind, I’m going to say it. People
want me to be all politically correct, and that’s not me. If
something don’t sit right with me, I go ahead and say it.”

In less than three years of fighting, Lawal has quickly made a name
for himself. Half of his fights have been in Japan, yet he’s still
managed to garner a following. Not all of his Twitter followers
were fans, though.

“People would get mad and call me disrespectful and call me the N
word,” he said. “After a while it got to the point where I was
hoping one of these fans that had been messaging would say it to my
face because I’d f--k them up. It got to the point where I was
hoping one of these people on Twitter would approach me with what
they were saying over Twitter so I could have a reason just to
whoop somebody’s ass right there. That’s when I knew I had to step
back and get off Twitter a little bit because it would get me where
I was getting mad. … Now I’m cool. I’m back on the scene.”

“He’s good on the ground, but I’m not scared,” Lawal said. “I’m not
scared of any position. The thing is, I know he’s good on the
ground, but just because he’s good on the ground doesn’t mean I
should fear what he’s strong at. I have to respect it, but I can’t
fear it. If the fight goes to the ground, I just have to be smart.
That’s all.”

Lawal also pointed out that he’s trained with plenty of jiu-jitsu
black belts, including Fabricio
Werdum, Marcelo
Garcia and the Nogueira brothers.

“I really don’t get submitted much, but the thing is, he’s
submitted a lot of those guys I just named,” Lawal said. “I just
have to be smart more than anything. I can’t give my back to him
and stuff like that. Other than that, I’m just going to fight with
a good game plan.”